I was just wondering if anyone used both and what they think about either one? What the other do better than the other, etc? I'm currently running the XenServer and have not dabbled with VMWare and it seems like almost everyone I speak to uses VMWare including the majority of the Spiceworks community and I feel left out.

I received another opportunity and gotten a new Server DL380 G7 w/ 64GB of Ram and 8x300GB HDDs. It is planned to be used for virtualization but wondering if I should put VMWare. Anyone running both VMWare and XenServer in their environment? Is it more difficult having to manage two different ones? I love how XenServer is and how easy it was to setup for someone like me who have never used it prior or any background of virtualization.

So I guess I'm asking for opinions and have it an open discussion. Thanks!

I've been reading from different places about the two. How is the XenServer crippled?

XenServer is a commercialization of Xen. Some really key features, like HA and DRBD are removed. XenServer is also behind, although not by much, but traditionally new features are in Xen as much as years ahead of XenServer.

Xen is used by the big, big shops. XenServer is more popular with small ones.

Traditionally XenServer has had much better PV drivers for Windows and is quite a bit easier to use. Xen does nothing to be friendly.

1st Post

I've been reading from different places about the two. How is the XenServer crippled?

XenServer is a commercialization of Xen. Some really key features, like HA and DRBD are removed. XenServer is also behind, although not by much, but traditionally new features are in Xen as much as years ahead of XenServer.

Xen is used by the big, big shops. XenServer is more popular with small ones.

Traditionally XenServer has had much better PV drivers for Windows and is quite a bit easier to use. Xen does nothing to be friendly.

I would just like to clarify that Xenserver does support HA but not in the free version.

I've been reading from different places about the two. How is the XenServer crippled?

XenServer is a commercialization of Xen. Some really key features, like HA and DRBD are removed. XenServer is also behind, although not by much, but traditionally new features are in Xen as much as years ahead of XenServer.

Xen is used by the big, big shops. XenServer is more popular with small ones.

Traditionally XenServer has had much better PV drivers for Windows and is quite a bit easier to use. Xen does nothing to be friendly.

I would just like to clarify that Xenserver does support HA but not in the free version.

Yes, XenServer allows you to repurchase some, but not all, of the HA features of Xen.

have used xenserver in the past with success. it's really easy to use (and at the time, that was my main consideration). As for myself, when I kick off my virtualization plans here I plan on using ESXi and vSphere essentials (in order to leverage the expertise available to me via our statewide support organization). Price is not as much of an issue, in my instance, but access to experts and reliability most definitely are.

have used xenserver in the past with success. it's really easy to use (and at the time, that was my main consideration). As for myself, when I kick off my virtualization plans here I plan on using ESXi and vSphere essentials (in order to leverage the expertise available to me via our statewide support organization). Price is not as much of an issue, in my instance, but access to experts and reliability most definitely are.

We have used VMware for the last 4 years, VWWare server on Windows, ESX, ESXi (free and paid for). I keep looking for a cheaper/better solution but have not found one. I have tried Xenserver and MS but I do not believe either are at the place VWWare is especially when you include vSphere. I think Windows Server 8 will hold some promise but I have not had time to do a deep dive yet.
Also when I look at 3rd party stuff everybody and their brother works with MS and VM. Most support XenServer but not all.

I did look at the free Xen but it was too complicated to manage. My team deals with anything that plugs into the wall so we need to be experts on allot of differing IT equipment and easy management is important to us. Yes I have had questions on the paper shredder asked of me.

We currently run a mix of 4 ESXi hosts connected to a vSphere server in a HA cluster with an iSCSI SAN for storage in our HQ. We also run the free ESXi in our smaller offices to hold AD/DNS/DHCP and other misc. servers.

I keep looking and testing when a new version of a competitor comes out but right now we are a VMWare shop.

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VMware, from what I've heard, is better. However we went with XenServer based on cost because it's per-server and much cheaper than VMware.

To be honest, we're very happy with XenServer thus far.

Unless you've got a pretty large deployment 40+ servers, its not hard to run VMware on the essentials bundle ($600) or essentials Plus bundle ($5k). I'd argue that for the target markets they have pretty cost effective solutions ($200 a server is pretty darn cheap).

XenServer is much more expensive than VMWare, at least in the SMB range.

So I'm looking through the VMWare website and I'm kind of confuse on the cost. I only have about 20 servers and I can't seem to find the "essentials" bundle. Would free ESXi would suffice in my environment?

So I'm looking through the VMWare website and I'm kind of confuse on the cost. I only have about 20 servers and I can't seem to find the "essentials" bundle. Would free ESXi would suffice in my environment?